


The Flower of Valerian

by Kaylee no Valerian (KayleeArafinwiel)



Series: The Story of Blanche no Valerian de L'Envers [2]
Category: Kushiel's Legacy - Jacqueline Carey
Genre: Gen, Outtakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-06-10 10:19:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6952672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayleeArafinwiel/pseuds/Kaylee%20no%20Valerian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from "Blanche". When Blanche no Valerian is ten years old, she has one of her first encounters with a Mandrake adept.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Flower of Valerian

**Author's Note:**

> Dorian no Mandrake's three children are Vivien no Camellia, Julianne no Heliotrope and Damien no Mandrake. Their mother, his beloved, is the aunt of Melisande Shahrizai. (See "Julianne's Natality" for more details)

When Blanche was ten, she moved from the nursery to the fosterlings' quarter, near the adepts. There was a small garden there, and Blanche would spend part of most days - if the weather was good - helping tend it. A profusion of valerian grew in the garden, of course, but there were small plots representing each of the other twelve Houses, too. The fosterlings would sometimes pick the flowers, weaving crowns and chains of them when they needed to be thinned.  
  
At the moment, a Mandrake adept - Dorian no Mandrake - was visiting and overseeing the harvest. Blanche liked him, she found. He was warm and open, and good with the children - he had three of his own, as it turned out. Being Mandrake, of course, he was unused to being disobeyed, but he wasn't unnecessarily cruel.

 

When Blanche had filled most of her basket with the pink and white valerian flowers, she noticed Dorian no Mandrake plaiting something with deft fingers. Curious, she trotted over to him, and sucked on her lip as the slender stalks were plaited together. A scourge, she saw now, although it was unlikely to hurt in truth. Still, the many-tongued lash looked like it could be fierce or gentle, depending on the hand that wielded it. Cautiously, she extended a hand and ran a fingertip over one plaited strand. "It's soft," she said wonderingly, and coloured at Dorian no Mandrake's raised eyebrow. "My lord," she added hastily, and he smiled slowly.

 

"Just so, it is soft," he agreed, picking it up and trailing it over her back. She felt the prickling of something - she knew not what - straining inside her as the grassy strands stroked the bare spot between her shoulders. Suddenly the touch was gone, and just as suddenly, a sharp, stinging tickle arose as the whip splayed over her shoulders, making her gasp.

  
"O-oh, my lord...please..."

  
Dorian no Mandrake laughed. "Please, what, little Blanche? Please give you more?" he teased, and Blanche shivered.

  
"Please, no more," she said softly. "I'm sorry, my lord."

  
He tossed the whip aside lightly. "Ah, well. You are a child yet, pretty Blanche. And you yielded well. You will take no harm from that." He caught her in his embrace and rubbed her shoulders, and she relaxed into his arms.

 

There was a little redness, Dorian no Mandrake informed Blanche, but it faded quickly, and he had not bruised her or broken the skin. She nodded obediently. Play of such kind was common at Valerian - she just had let her guard down. He gave her a kiss on the brow and sent her back to her work, and Blanche thought wonderingly of what proper scourges might bring.


End file.
